It was in a hotel bar in Melbourne last July when the decisive moment in Liverpool’s season was played out and the decision made that night will almost certainly ensure that the Premier League trophy is hoisted at Anfield on May 11.

Liverpool had just received a bid of £40,000,001 from Arsenal for Luis Suárez and, with the Uruguayan forward desperate to leave the club, it appeared as though a deal would have to be done. Manager Brendan Rodgers and managing director Ian Ayre discussed the bid briefly before heading back to their drinks and left Liverpool’s American owners to make the final call.

But the Americans held firm, they rejected Arsenal’s bid and ridiculed the London club’s attempts to prise Suárez from Anfield and, as the striker scored his 30th league goal of the season at Carrow Road on Sunday, that decision to gamble on keeping Suárez was vindicated once and for all.

Let us not forget that Liverpool were in a wholly different position last summer to that which they occupy now. They may be on the brink of climbing back onto their perch, but last July, they were preparing for a season without European football having finished seventh in the previous campaign. Keeping Suárez was a battle for Liverpool, but it was one they had to win for the future of the club.

Selling Suárez would have signalled the white flag being waved at Anfield and would have been an acceptance that Liverpool had lost touch with English football’s aristocracy. But they acted like the huge club that they have always been and told Arsenal where to go and the end result is perhaps more spectacular than anyone at Anfield could have imagined.

Liverpool are odds-on to win the title and Suárez has played a central part in that thanks to the actions of the owners and manager Brendan Rodgers last summer. Mark Ogden

Aside from one interview on MUTV in the immediate aftermath of their takeover at Manchester United in May 2005, the Glazer family have maintained an unbroken silence on all matters at Old Trafford, but with David Moyes now fighting for his future as manager, the American owners should speak out to either support or dispense with the Scot.

How Moyes can survive a season that has been United’s worst in living memory remains to be seen following Sunday’s abject performance while losing 2-0 at Everton.

Moyes’s befuddled post-match claims that United had played well at Goodison Park were met with ridicule by pundits and supporters alike and there is a distinct sense of the 50-year-old losing his grip on the job at Old Trafford, but with doubts growing and Moyes losing support from within the dressing-room and in the stands, the Glazers could end it all by delivering a statement about their vision of the immediate future.

If they come out and back the manager, who is approaching the end of the first year of a six-year contract, the Glazers would banish the uncertainty and at least give Moyes the mandate to continue and embark on a summer rebuilding job. But if Moyes is no longer the man for the job, the Tampa-based owners should make that clear, act quickly and get on with identifying and appointing the man who can restore the club to a position of strength.

Moyes has been given numerous chances to rectify mistakes and bad results this season, but any progress has been short-lived.

The Glazers will be aware of this and maybe they have been left as speechless as everybody else by the the team’s dramatic fall from grace this season. Mark Ogden

Arsenal are a club not exactly renowned for their dynamism in the transfer market. Yet quietly and almost unnoticed last month, Arsène Wenger completed just about the shrewdest piece of player negotiations that he has managed in recent years. Aaron Ramsey was out with a long-term injury and he still had more than two years running on his existing contract. So no hurries you might think?

But no. In true Daniel Levy style, Arsenal struck when their negotiating hand was strong and doubled Ramsey’s weekly salary with a new five-year deal that places him with Mesut Ozil and Theo Walcott among those who earn beyond £100,000. His return after a four-month absence has unsurprisingly coincided with a transformation over this past week in Arsenal’s form and the club do again look likely to end the season both with their Champions League place secure and a first trophy since 2005.

Ramsey’s great strength is not just his work-rate and energy – statistics consistently show he covers more ground in a match than any Arsenal player – but almost a sixth sense, like Frank Lampard in his prime, to run beyond defences and provide a persistent goal threat.

Another who does that, albeit for reasons of pace rather than timing, is Walcott. He is also sidelined by injury and has only two years remaining on his contract. Rather than avoid the damaging delays previously, it is the ideal time for Arsenal to take something of a risk on Walcott’s return to health and get around the table. Being proactive rather than reactive in contract talks, as they were with Ramsey, will be the key to keeping this team together and avoiding a repeat of the departures of Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri. Jeremy Wilson

According to a statement on Aston Villa's website, owner Randy Lerner will wait until the end of this season to address rumours over whether or not he will sell the club. After watching yet another dour home performance in the 0-0 draw with Southampton though, Villa's fans must be wondering why he would bother to wait.

Presumably Lerner does not wish to distract the team from... what, exactly? Aston Villa may have only won twice since the end of January and - under a reputed firebrand of a manager - played football as bleakly grey as the most miserable winter days, but they sit five points clear of the relegation zone and have a game in hand over three of the bottom four teams. In short, despite having mustered only 35 goals this season, they are likely to stay up in a deeply uninspiring manner... Again.

For the third consecutive season, Villa are set to finish in the anonymous reaches of lower-mid-table with neither manager nor players proffering any particularly vivid signs of an improved spectacle in years to come at Villa Park. In just four years Villa have gone from European competition to a shadow of a side for which competetive trips to foreign lands are unforseeable.

A quick glance at recent historical Premier League tables show that Villa have declined in stature quite miserably over the past decade, much of which was under Lerner's tenure. With four games left, perhaps this time the chairman could give his fans something - anything - to care about at the close of the season. Dan Lucas

When does social media fail to accurately reflect the society we live in? That may sound like an A-Level Media Studies exam question, but it is a relevant one for Newcastle United and their bedraggled looking manager Alan Pardew.

After the club’s hardcore travelling support had turned on Pardew with banners and chants during the 3-0 defeat to Stoke City, it was thought a larger crowd at home could make the manager’s position become untenable if they repeated the scenes at the Britannia Stadium.

As is the way of the world these days, the 'Pardew Out' campaign has its own # on Twitter. In the build up to the arrival of Swansea, there was much venting of spleen and angry calls for fans to unite and show they no longer wanted him to be in charge of the team.

Pardew was on the brink and probably remains there given their awful form this year, but there were no demonstrations, no protests against him and there was not even a single bed sheet banner saying something rude for the television cameras to focus on.

The atmosphere inside St James’ Park was tense rather than mutinous. There is anger and there is disillusionment but there is also apathy. Apathy strangles the life out of a club like Newcastle.

There is no doubt Pardew is on very dangerous ground. He may well get the sack in the summer once this insipid season has drawn to a close, but he was right to thank the supporters after he became the first manager in Newcastle United’s Premier League history to lose five games on the bounce following the 2-1 home defeat to Swansea City.

There were a few chants calling for him to be sacked after the final whistle, but not the sort of mass rebellion that would have made owner Mike Ashley pull the trigger this week.

But before he sits too comfortably in the manager’s chair, it is worth remembering that Newcastle fans are so loyal they have always hated protesting against a manager during a game as they do not want to damage the team while it’s on the pitch. It’s a very strange situation, which will no doubt be brought to a head in the summer. Luke Edwards

Never mind the title race, this is the big question for Man City’s Micah Richards

CLICHÉ OF THE WEEK

“Love him or hate him” was doing brisk business on social media as football fans sought to express themselves about Jose Mourinho’s charmless post-match outburst. It narrowly edged out another popular manager rant cliché “no class”, but overall, the online view was that Mourinho’s entertainment factor more than makes up for his obnoxious behaviour.

THINGS WE MISS ABOUT THE PREMIER LEAGUE

Manchester United. A team bearing the name of Manchester United won the Premier League 13 times since its inception but this once-successful outfit has seemingly been supplanted in the league by a strange bootleg version. Explanations have included fraud, alien abduction, bodysnatching, and the hiring of David Moyes due to a clerical error.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

The Grim Reaper. The veteran Angel of Death gave 110% in his visit to Goodison Park on Sunday and used all his experience to take up a position behind David Moyes in the dugout. Was controversially ejected by fussy stewards and faces a three-reap ban, but the furious harbinger of doom may appeal – possibly by playing chess against an FA disciplinary committee.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

999 – Premier League goals at Villa Park. If they don’t make it 1,000 and more before the season’s out, it could be a long wait for that milestone.

MADE-UP NUMBER OF THE WEEK

Zero – Easter Eggs sent to Mourinho from Referees’ Association after his latest assault.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

Captured in one handy screen grab from Sky Sports’ excellent coverage of the Chelsea v Sunderland match: everything that is wrong with modern football. And indeed modern life. Why don’t you just go to the damn game and watch it? Sure she’s a nice lady and everything, but honestly…